... and back to Lonnie, via Strahan and Smithton

Tuesday 16th Feb

We're back in Launceston staying with George and Shar for the night prior to delivering Linda and Ross to the airport tomorrow - they have to get back to Perth for the next market. We'll be off to Cradle Mountain on our own for a couple of days before heading over to Melbourne.

On Sunday we drove over to Strahan on the far west coast, going via Sheffield, a small town that has decided to put itself on the tourist map by painting large murals on most of the walls in the town centre. It worked because we stopped, and I bought a copy of Joe Cocker's Sheffield Steel (it seemed appropriate) and Ross bought some Russian matchbox labels (not sure why) from an eccentric character running "The Emporium" an eclectic junk shop with everything from a guide to the murals to a German Fireman's helmet.

We arrived in Strahan in the rain - it appears that that was the day that the 100 day drought ended. However our family delux cabin was clean, comfortable and warm. We went to the tavern for the a meal and on the way back stopped at a bridge over the creek where someone had said they had seen a platypus. Two minutes after we arrived Ross said - there's one, and we watched it working its way downstream for a couple of minutes. Unfortunately we had no camera or binoculars. When we tried again for 45 minutes the next day it didn't appear.

Yesterday we braved the rain for a 6 hour trip across Macquarie Harbour and up the Gordon River to see the world heritage temperate rain forest. On the way we visited Sarah Island, the Van Dieman's Land equivalent of La Guyane's Devil's Island, where we were given an interesting and enthusiastic tour by an Aussie young woman who Nigel needs to sign up for Equity. We then headed off up the river for a walk in the rain forest in the rain, where we were told about the magnificent Huon Pines, which grow about 1mm a year in thickness, but can live for thousands of years. It feels a bit weird to be standing next to something that was alive when the Romans first came to Britain.

Today we made the long (7 hour) trip from Strahan to Smithton, on the way we stopped for coffee at Waratah where we had been told we might see platypus - but no luck. We went to Smithton to see Ross's Auntie Cathy and cousin Deano, and for Ross to catch up on 5 years of family gossip. They gave us a superb lunch of crayfish (what they call a lobster and caught by Deano's brothers when diving) octopus, smoked salmon and salads. We were stuffed when we set off on the final 200km back to Launceston.

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The one on the right shows the owners of the shop behind deciding not to invest in an enterprise being set up by their friend Mr Coles. Coles is now the Aussie equivalent of Tesco, but this shop is still owned by the family.